User acceptance testing is a key piece of any Dynamics 365 CRM project. Basically, it entails getting your users into your system to try out some common workflows and day-to-day tasks to make sure they actually work before you launch the full project. If done correctly, it can really smooth out the launch of your project, so here are some thing to keep in mind.

Train and support your testers

Training your users is the first thing that you're going to need to do in order to perform effective user acceptance testing. Without the knowledge of basics – like logging in and simple navigation – they’re not going to be able to effectively test what they need to do on a day-to-day basis.

Also, once they’ve been trained, you’ll need to provide them with support for when they get stuck. Remember, they’re new users, so all of those new user frustrations will be present. If you don’t give them the tools to manage those frustrations, they’ll stop testing and move on with their day.

Provide testing scripts

The second thing required for effective user acceptance testing is detailed testing scripts. They can be onerous to build, but without them all testers will do one of two things; go out of their way to break the system with edge cases and complicated scenarios or spent 5 minutes clicking around before giving you a thumbs up.

Neither of those outcomes provide useful data, so make sure you give testers a detailed list of tasks that they will actually perform on a day-to-day basis. That list should also allow them to tick off things that are working and provide notes on what isn’t. That will give you the information you need to make changes before the system goes live.

Commonly neglected testing areas

The last item for effective user acceptance testing involves paying special attention to some commonly neglected areas. This isn’t a comprehensive list, but these are the ones that will have the biggest impact at go-live.

Pay attention to columns included in views

Views allow you to surface data from within a record and give it to your users in a nice Excel-like format. If you users frequently require a specific piece of information - social insurance number, account number, etc. - include that information on the view. It will save your users a click and improve their experience.

Make new fields searchable

If you added a new field for important information – customer ID, account number, etc. – you may want users to be able to use the information to find records. By default, those new fields won’t be searchable, which means any users that search based on that information will assume the data isn’t in the system and report a problem. You don’t need to make all new fields searchable, but make sure the important ones are.

Test your security roles

It's very common for issues involving insufficient user permissions to crop up at go-live because the person building your system was probably a system administrator. To mitigate this, make sure your testers are testing with an appropriate security role and that you have users of difference security roles performing tests.

Remember, user acceptance testing is key to a smooth launch of your Dynamics 365 project. It’s also easy to ignore and tough to get right. Keep the points above in mind and get in touch with Prophet Business Group if you’re considering Dynamics 365. You can also check out our other blog on the topic on ERP Software Blog.